Art Insiders x WeTransfer

Los Angeles is the city of Hollywood glamour and celebrities, palm trees and stretched-out beaches. More And more however, it's becoming an art world epicenter with serious potential.

No more than half a century ago, artists slowly started settling in laid-back California - and especially sunny Los Angeles - for the sense of freedom, opportunity and openness. The number of LA-based artists has grown exponentially over the past 3-5 years, and this mass-migration of young creatives to the US West Coast has been drawing some well-deserved attention to the LA art scene. The growing artist community soon attracted international big-name galleries and private museums, making the city a force to be reckoned with amongst art collectors.

With plenty of space and affordable studios in comparison to major established art capitals such as London or New York, Los Angeles has been hailed as an ideal location for artistic experimentation and creation. LA is a young city, but one with an impressive track-record of many flourishing industries like film, tech, music and fashion. Up to this point, the LA art market had always been quite underdeveloped, which is now working to the city's advantage and is proving to be one of the reasons LA’s art scene is thriving. The relatively bare art-landscape makes LA’s artistic community look hungrily towards the future and eager to embrace change. New people flow into the city, and innovative ideas and trends pour out of LA into the rest of the world.

As the simplest way to send big files, WeTransfer connects creative minds around the world. Having recently opened an office in Los Angeles, WeTransfer partnered with Art Insiders on this exploration of the local LA art scene. We sat down with some of the most inspiring and ambitious people from LA’s art scene to hear their thoughts on current developments in the art world, and why LA is such an exciting place to be right now.

Stefan Simchowitz

In this interview, we take a tour with the flamboyant Stefan Simchowitz, who shows us around LA and his own home whilst sharing his insights and views on the art world.

Claire Tabouret

Robert NortoN

Besides being an active player in the international art world, Robert Norton runs a company called Verisart, the first platform to certify and verify physical artworks and collectibles using blockchain technology.

Mieke Marple

We spoke to Mieke Marple, a well-known figure in the LA art scene and former director of Night Gallery, an exciting artist-run space in LA’s bustling Downtown area with an impressive group of promising young artists under its wing.